The Triage from Hell
by Rialga
Summary: After the Roger Weiss incident, Hyde escapes and is not found. At least, until the Illuminati hears that he may be involved with a gang in Japan over a century later. And so Jack the Ripper is sent to end the man once and for all. But there is also another group involved... Triage X/Hell Blade crossover! Rated M for blood/gore, language, and more.


Well hello there everyone! Once again, in the midst of working on my side project and planning out To Fight a God events, I was once again struck by the urge to do a one-shot, ha ha ha. Just like the last one I did, it's a crossover, this time between Triage X and a new manhwa I have started to read called Jack the Ripper: Hell Blade (Hell Blade for short apparently). Something about reading Hell Blade just seemed to really click in my mind with Triage X and the temptation to do this one-shot now was just too much to resist.

Now, that said, this one-shot will cover parts of Triage X volumes 3 and 4, mainly the action scenes such as Sayo Hitsugi dealing with the arms dealers by herself and the whole Fever finale (as I call it) with Mikoto trying to take down the rest of the dealers for her brother's sake. As for Hell Blade, given that it takes place back when the Ripper murders took place (i.e. in the 1880s), this fic will naturally occur waaaaaaaayyyyy after it ends. That also said, I will not be using too many elements from Hell Blade (which will be hopefully explained well in this one-shot), but I will make damn sure I do my best.

So on that note, this one-shot will more or less go the same way as that of Labeling a Devil. By that, I mean I'll be jumping around like crazy from one scene to another in order to keep things going and not bothering with ALL of the small details. And I guess you can say it is sort of a sequel to Labeling a Devil as well, so I won't really be describing how the Triage X characters look like since I'm going to presume you already know what they look like and all.

Here it is, people! Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Triage X or Hell Blade. But if I did, I'd make sure that they both got a lot more love/attention than they do now.

P.S. Hell Blade rocks! Damn shame the final volume (vol. 5) is already coming out in October…

The Triage from Hell

It was a nice and warm day in a certain city in Japan. People shuffled from one place to another, moving animatedly, cars honked, an occasional siren, some kids running around happily, and the occasional animal contentedly walking around the neighborhoods. To this far more simply, it was just another day.

However, that was what it seemed like on the surface. To the people at large, everything was normal. But it certainly wouldn't be soon.

"Haaaaaa, so this is Japan, huh? As expected, it's a crowded country to be in." The one who said this was a man casually watching the bustling people from the end of a narrow alleyway. Said man was quite tall, easily a few inches over six feet in height. He wore simple black combat boots and tight dark grey pants with a dark brown gun strap around the waist. In the gun holder on his left side, a positively large silver handgun with a golden cross on the side of it could be seen there. The man also wore a large black coat with a hood obscuring his face and a wild fur trimming on the inner linings of the coat around the chest area.

The man wore nothing else and the coat made no attempt to hide his lean yet incredibly muscular physique, every muscle rippling with the slightest movement. He cocked his head up a bit, enough so that if anyone had been looking, they'd see that he appeared to be rather young, looking to be in perhaps his mid to late twenties, with a somewhat tanned complexion, youthful and bad-boy lady attracting looks, blue-grey eyes, and wild, unruly jet black hair that went down to his shoulders a bit.

However, he was far from young. He had existed in fact for more than five hundred years and twenty years. And during his long life, he had done many, many things. He had killed more people and inhuman creatures – demons – than what could ever have been fathomed by the human mind and became quite well known during the 1880s back in Europe. Though none had actually seen his face at the time, they still had given him a name, one that he sometimes goes by every now and then for the hell of it: Jack. Or more specifically, Jack the Ripper. But he also had another name, one only a few knew. It was his birth name: Victor Frankenstein.

Jack sighed as he started to move, sticking to the alleys and shadows. "Once again, I am sent on what could be a wild goose chase," he muttered to himself in English. "Sometimes I wonder if they like to send me to such bloody large cities to see how I'd deal with all the noise."

The people he was referring to was none other than the Illuminati, a group he had long since been a part of. That being said, he made it a point to work alone, no matter what. It was to the point where he'd even threaten some young greenhorns that would occasionally be assigned to the same area as him. Jack felt that this being sent to large, near impossible to navigate kinds of cities was perhaps some sort of punishment from those guys.

He sighed once again before leaping as high as he could, jumping onto the ledge of a seventh story window. There was someone inside the room, but with their back turned. However, that person was just about to turn around, towards the window. But a split second later, when that happened, Jack was already gone, having used the window ledge as leverage to jump again, this time to the top of the building.

"Still, I wonder if perhaps that dumbass bastard really is here…" the infamous killer thought.

Following the battle a little more than a century ago with Roger Weiss and his failed attempts of reviving his wife as a human, the man's monstrous steward Hyde had fled, having just narrowly avoided being killed by Sherlock Holmes. Not hide nor hair was ever seen of the man for years afterwards and thus he had been presumed dead by all who were involved. The only one who had thought otherwise was Holmes himself, who spent some free time attempting to track down Hyde. If nothing else, it gave him something to do aside from his other cases. That and he disliked it when people would run off on him. But eventually, more than a decade later, Holmes had actually found evidence that the man had indeed survived and out of a whim, informed the Illuminati of it. Jack was sent to kill Hyde and officially put an end to the whole affair at the time, but Hyde had managed to fight him off and elude everyone once again. Every now and then afterwards, there'd be an appearance and Jack would get sent to track him down, even well after Hyde should have died of old age, yet seemed to not age. Apparently, the man's claims of being immortal weren't as far fetched as what had previously been assumed.

"And so here I am again," the killer thought. Over the many years following Roger Weiss' demise, Hyde had kept himself rather busy, getting involved from time to time in the criminal underworld. While the no longer human man kept out of the limelight enough to avoid really making a name for himself in said criminal underworld, he had still been involved often enough for undercover members of the Illuminati, secret contacts, and technology to keep a decent track on the man. And it was his involvement with crime that had led Jack here to Japan; news had come to him and the rest of the group recently that Hyde had taken up a job working alongside the Kabuto gang.

And since the number of demons currently roaming the human world was down thanks to a silver haired devil hunter taking down demons in America and even a little recently took down a number of them here in this same city, Jack had been allowed plenty of time to go hunting after Hyde. And if need be, also mop up the Kabuto group as well.

For the first time since illegally entering the country, Jack smiled; if Hyde really was here, then just maybe he'd finally get to take the fucker down and get some fun out of it in the process too. And even if he wasn't here, well there was always the Kabuto group to put down too.

With all that in mind now, Jack took to running and leaping from rooftop to rooftop as quietly yet quickly as possible. He had a lot of ground to cover. It was time to get started.

Elsewhere in the city, Sayo Hitsugi, dressed in her long combat boots over her fishnet stockings, a skirt, a simple t-shirt with a few rips near the top to expose her generous cleavage, was currently finishing up 'persuading' a no name crook to give her some info on the XM-25 deal. The woman sighed. "This is the third one and it's another dead end." She slightly adjusted the long black coat she had and pulled out her cell phone, giving a call to another member of Ampoule Zero: Yuko.

"It's no good, sensei. No one knows a thing about the XM-25 deal," she reported as she casually slinked out of the alleyway she had been in and mingling with the passerbys. "What should I do now?"

Over the phone, Yuko replied to her question. "You'll just have to visit the arms dealers one at a time." A slight pause. "And one more thing, Hitsugi. You better not be coercing people into talking with your fists again."

Sayo huffed. "Please, what kind of person do you take me for," she responded with a knowing grin as she continued to walk.

However, she slowed just a bit as she spotted a familiar face in the crowd. "Now there's a face I haven't seen in a while," she thought with a smile.

"Hitsugi?" Yuko asked from over the phone.

"Bingo! Just spotted a big one. I'm going to pursue!" she quickly said before hanging up.

She began to quickly make her way through the crowd to catch up with the person she spotted. "Never imagined he'd be hanging out in the slums. If anyone's suspicious, it's him for sure," she thought with a smile as she got a bit of a closer look at her target, a very tall man dressed in a standard business suit with grey hair, blue eyes, and a stern face. Shinichiro Inunaki, a former member of Ampoule Zero.

The head nurse and member of the Black Label organization slinked in and out of the crowd, careful to keep a watchful eye over Inunaki as he continued to walk. He didn't seem to spot her. Sayo grinned at that. "Show me somewhere interesting, senpai," she thought.

However, she had been so focused on Inunaki that she ended up bumping into someone. "Sorry about that," she muttered as she quickly moved past the person she accidentally hit.

"No problem," said the person. Said person she bumped into was a man standing just a few inches taller than her, with a bit of a bad-boy face, what with the piercing in one of his eyebrows, slight goatee and red eyes. His hair was mainly white, but with some black in the back part of his head and was spikily slicked back. The man was also dressed in casual blue jeans, a black button up shirt with the two top buttons undone and a simple grey coat over it. The identity of this man was unknown to most people, but he has been around for centuries if not longer. He was there during the mess in London when Jack first became known and had a hand in the turning of a prostitute into a monstrous creature. He apparently had many names, but was mainly known as Count Percival.

Percival smiled as he simply stood there and watched Sayo put her hood on and hound after Inunaki, who had just gone down an alleyway. "And the Kabuto gang isn't the only thing in town either…" he thought. "Looks like my stay here may be a little fun after all."

Back with Sayo, as she pursued her former team member, she went from feeling elated to follow him to feeling a bit confused. "Where is he going?" she wondered as she continued to quietly follow her mark through several back ways here in the slums for the past ten minutes or so.

Eventually though, she watched as the tall man entered a run down building from a side entrance. Quickly walking in, the Amazonian nurse just barely managed to make it in time to see him walk up the stairs.

"Just what is he doing in a rundown place like this?" she thought as she proceeded to wait for several seconds before making her way up the stairs, using the sound of Inunaki's footsteps as a beacon to follow.

She smirked as she heard him enter a room not far up. "Alright now, senpai-," she began to think as she walked into the room only to suddenly stop short as she immediately noticed two things. The first being that Inunaki wasn't there. The second thing was that there were about several men there instead.

"What the-? Just where did Inunaki disappear to? And who are these thugs?" she thought as she glanced around the room.

The men there were just as surprised to see her as she was to see them. "A customer…?" one said uncertainly.

"No way, no one's supposed to know about this place," another quipped as he looked Sayo over.

"Well she must have heard of this place from somewhere…" another muttered.

Sayo grimaced and looked around again. "Shit, he couldn't have possibly gone that far." She looked over the guys. "Oh well."

She dropped the hood and put on the most adorably confused and innocent expression she could muster, one that would have utterly floored most men and even some women due to how moe it looked. "Eeeek! Help me!" she exclaimed while latching onto the arm of the nearest guy. "I totally thought I'd find this hole-the-wall cake shop in here!"

The guys just stared, confused and taken aback. "What the fuck?" a number of them thought.

From the next room over, separated by hard to look through glass, Inunaki watched this act of Sayo's with a small chuckle. "Same as always, I see," he said to himself.

"So that lass is part of your old group, huh?" A person next to him said. The person in question was yet another tall man, easily around the same height as Inunaki, but far more muscular, said physique being shown off in the tight long sleeve button up shirt he wore in addition to simple black pants and boots. The muscular man had a somewhat long auburn hair tied into a ponytail that went down just an inch or two past his shoulders. He also had a large, sadistic smile on his face that just seemed to be permanent.

Inunaki chuckled again. "Yeah, that's one of them, Hyde," he replied.

Hyde chuckled as well now. "I see. The lass puts on a rather bad act," he said in Japanese, though with an English accent, something he just never quite lost over the many years as he had not often spoken other languages save for jobs like this. He watched as Sayo tried to exit the room, only for one of the men to smack her in the back of the head with a pipe. "She isn't quite living up to what you told me," he pointed out in amusement.

Inunaki smirked. "Oh, you'd be surprised, Hyde."

And as soon as the former Ampoule Zero member spoke, he and Hyde watched as Sayo began to get up. When one of the men pulled her hood away, he recoiled in shock and fear as Sayo now had on her usual Oni mask.

"You just dug your own graves," she said in a creepy voice before suddenly standing up, kicking the man who pulled her hood down right in the chin. His jaw shattered upon impact and he went flying roughly five feet into the air. He would have gone higher had it not been for the ceiling, which he slammed into hard enough to utterly destroy his face, blood flying all over the room while a small crater formed from where he hit it.

"W-What the fuck?!" one guy cried out as the now dead man's body started to fall.

He and another thug standing next to him started to reach for a weapon, but Sayo lunged at them with her hands, her gauntlets – which she had hidden in her coat and now wore – slamming right into their faces and in turn slamming the back of their heads into the wall right behind them.

The small craters the size of their heads were created upon contact and the windows next to them shattered from the skull shattering force. Blood began to flow out of the small puncture wounds created from Sayo's gauntlet fingers gripping them too hard.

"You bitch!" Sayo spun around upon hearing the insult in time to see one of the remaining thugs coming right at her with a knife.

She smiled under her mask. "What an idiot," she thought as she raised her right hand and brought it down in a chop on the extending blade. The blade of the knife broke into a dozen pieces under her inhuman strength and before the now unarmed man could react in shock, the head nurse grabbed him by the scuff of his shirt. "I know you're around here somewhere."

She whirled around and flung the man almost like a javelin through a window on the opposite side of the very large room. "Inunaki!" she yelled as she did as the man went flying through the glass and into the room where said man and Hyde were at.

"Ho, she is indeed a strong one," Hyde commented as he casually moved out of the way, letting the now unconscious thug go flying past him and into the wall, cracking both said wall and the back of the guy's skull.

Inunaki snickered. "Looks like she still has that amazon strength. Shame she isn't as good at tailing people as Miki," he thought aloud.

He turned to leave. "Well, I've had my fun for the day," he commented to Hyde as he got closer to the door. "Feel free to have your way with her. Just know that she won't be an easy one to fight. And don't forget your job with Kabuto gang later; they will be expecting you," he said as he did an offhanded wave to the large man.

Hyde licked his lips in anticipation. "Yes. Of course, sir. And with great pleasure," he replied.

His powerful muscles tensed up with excitement as he began to stride towards the broken window and over the ledge now. It had been far too long since he truly had a challenge, especially ever since the last time he injected himself with host blood more than a century ago.

Though it had pained him to retreat from his fight – if one could call it that – against Holmes all that time ago, he had no intention of dying at the time just yet. He had proceeded to go underground following the incident with Roger Weiss and Doctor Tesla's creations. The years following that, he had slowly begun to realize that apparently due to the number of times he had injected himself with host blood that he had benefited from it even long after its effects should have faded. His physical abilities were even greater than they were back then and the fact that he was still alive and still the same physically clearly indicated that he was functionally immortal. With these benefits, he had taken to getting involved with the criminal underground from time to time to keep himself afloat, though not often enough to be really known. It certainly had been an interesting life he led at any rate. However, due to his advantages, he no longer really got any kick out of fighting with others, his abilities and fighting experience always ensuring him a victory in a physical fight while bullets did little to stop him, his skin and muscles and bones being considerably tougher than they were before in addition to a slight healing factor, also rendering bullets of even high caliber nearly useless against him. But now… now, here was someone that could perhaps entertain him for a while.

Hyde sneered in glee as he watched Sayo very messily rip the heart out of the second to last man before turning around to face the last one. Incidentally, the last man just so happened to be more or less in front of Hyde right now and was too frightened by Sayo to notice the seemingly immortal man.

But Sayo certainly spotted him. "So there was another one, huh?" she thought.

She got ready to charge at the last two men, but stopped when Hyde proceeded to smack aside the last of the thugs. A sickening crack was heard, the thug's head almost doing a one-eighty from the sheer force of the casual smack.

The woman's eyes widened in shock behind her mask. "Whoa now… this guy's strength isn't normal…" she thought as she proceeded to size up the new face.

Hyde, on his end, just looked Sayo up and down, his smile somehow growing even bigger as he now got a better look at the mask Sayo wore. He laughed. "Well, now. A lass with the face of a demon, huh? How amusing," he said.

Sayo took note of his English accent and also of his imposing physique. His muscles certainly weren't for show. "Well now, you're a confident one," she decided to say, not letting any other emotions show in her voice. "Think you can last longer than your buddies?"

Hyde laughed almost boisterously. "I could say the same to you, little mouse. For you have wandered into a rabbit's house."

Sayo snickered at his words, finding them to be kinda cheesy. "So you really aren't afraid, huh? Alright then, I guess I can save the threats for now. You know anything about the XM-25?" she questioned.

Hyde merely snorted. "Ah, perhaps."

Sayo clenched her hands. "Really now? Willing to talk about it?"

Hyde's growing smile was enough of an answer to her. "Alright then. I guess you want to do this the hard way then."

Hyde's sadistic smile took on a predatory quality to it. "Then have at me, woman," he replied.

Sayo smirked. Then she lashed out with a fierce right straight that caught Hyde right in the stomach. The power behind the hit would have left any other person puking blood for weeks and would be while they were in the hospital. In Hyde's case, all it did was make him slightly stagger a few steps back.

Hyde coughed slightly before his smile reappeared. "Oh? You certainly are a strong one, little lass," he commented, his smile being one of glee.

Sayo's eyes widened. "No way…" she thought.

Hyde took a step closer. "Now, allow me to return the favor," he said. He was standing perfectly upright, almost relaxed. Then he became a blur, or his right arm at least, and his right fist shot out made contact with Sayo's stomach.

Her eyes went wide with shock and pain as she skidded back across the room. She nearly fell to her knees, coughing as she remained standing. "This guy… is he like that Dante guy from back then?" she thought, her mind working a mile a minute as she recalled how the silver haired man from the Masaki incident had been also been abnormally strong and fast, moreso than herself.

She began to feel worried as she stood back up to her full height. If this guy was as strong and fast as the silver haired man, then she was in serious trouble.

Hyde took a few steps. "What is wrong, little girl?" he questioned. He did a come-on hither. "Don't stop now. Entertain me!"

Sayo shot forth as fast as she could, taking Hyde by surprise. But the large man proved to have good reflexes as he lashed out with a quick and powerful punch. The Amazonian woman saw the punch coming and managed to duck under it before stomping on the floor to propel herself upwards, nailing Hyde in the jaw with the strongest uppercut she could muster.

Hyde's head snapped back and he staggered as well. Sayo took advantage of this and proceeded to grab hold of his head and smash her knee straight into his face. She heard and felt the cartilage of his nose break from the hit and she backed off briefly to see the results.

Blood spewed out from the busted nose, but Hyde merely smirked. Licking away some of the blood, the large proceeded to take the offensive now and lashed out with a lightning fast quick. Sayo sidestepped it and launched a kick of her own at his side. However, Hyde grabbed hold of her leg, his grip like a vice and he pulled her towards him and he headbutted her.

Before contact was made, Sayo could only watch in surprise as the man's nose seemed to stop bleeding and heal itself. Then when Hyde's head made contact with hers, she saw nothing after that save for stars.

The nurse went flying back into the wall and nearly through it. She groaned and clutched at her mask, feeling a number of cracks on it despite the fact that the material it was made of was quite durable. She bristled as this was yet another sign of Hyde's monstrous strength.

She just barely recovered in time to see Hyde running right at her, before the man leapt into the air a bit and got ready to smash his fists right into her skull. Sayo rolled out of the way in time and Hyde ended up merely smashing the wall, the resulting impact looking like a few grenades just went off.

Hyde blinked once in pleasant surprise before laughing, genuinely enjoying this fight so far. He proceeded to turn around while still essentially kneeling on the floor, but as soon as he did, Sayo introduced her foot to the back of his knee while he was still turning.

Hyde grunted a bit in pain and nearly lost his balance, almost falling back into and through the now very large hole he had made in the wall. It didn't help that they were on the tenth floor of the large rundown building.

Sayo immediately took note of this and kneed him the gut, making Hyde double over before kicking him in the chin. "Shit, just fall already," she thought as with each hit, she would draw blood from all of the power she was putting into the hits, but Hyde just wouldn't go over. If anything, he was beginning to stand up even faster.

And indeed he did. Hyde, despite letting himself get hit, smiled even more than before and then proceeded to extend his right arm forward. And then catch an incoming punch from Sayo. "You put up a very good fight! I feel almost bad for having to end it! But alas, all things must come to end eventually," he said most exuberantly.

Then he proceeded to pivot on the spot and judo toss her out the hole in the wall, grunting as he did so to indicate that he wasn't holding back anymore. Sayo's eyes widened in shock as she found herself instantly pulled from her spot on the floor and now about to go sailing out the hole. She may be superhumanly tough, but even she doubted she would be able to survive getting tossed onto the ground from this high up. She was just thankful that her coat didn't accidentally block her vision otherwise she wouldn't have been able to do what she did next.

Just as Hyde was about to let go of Sayo, Sayo wrapped her legs around Hyde's neck, keeping herself from being flung away, though the momentum of the now failed throw was still present as Hyde suddenly lurched forward. "Hrrmm?!" The muscular man was definitely caught off guard by this, though his smile still remained, albeit not as large as before.

Due to the angle she was at as her legs kept their hold on Hyde, Sayo was giving the man an unintentional look at her black panties. "Enjoy the view right now, because it's the last view of ass you'll get," she said before pulling as hard as she can with her legs.

Thanks to her own abnormal strength, usage of said strength in both her legs as well as her body, her own sudden momentum, and the still present momentum and power of Hyde's own failed toss, Sayo succeeded to pulling Hyde through the hole with her and flung him straight towards the ground.

She just barely managed to flip around in midair and grab hold of the ledge of the hole before it was too late and she then looked down in time to see Hyde crash.

If the force Hyde used to smash the wall was like that of a few grenades going off, then the force of when he crashed into the ground in that moment was like a truckload of grenades going off. The immortal man slammed head first into the ground, doing so with such force that Sayo felt the building tremble even though Hyde had crashed several yards away from it. Massive amounts of dust and debris appeared almost instantly around the crash site, obscuring all from view. Sayo had to look away momentarily as the crash had been devastating enough to send small pieces of debris all the way up there, nearly getting her eyes. People in the surrounding area could also be heard screaming out of shock and fear, thinking it to be some kind of bomb or perhaps even a small yet potentially dangerous earthquake.

"Urrgghh," Sayo grunted out as she proceeded to pull herself back into the room, knocking aside the pieces of the wall that were there in addition to shoving aside the corpse of one of the thugs.

As she finally climbed all the way back into the room and back away from the wall, her phone vibrated. "Hitsugi here," she said, unable to entirely suppress the groan of pain coming out of her throat.

"…Hitsugi? Are you alright?" It was Yuko.

"I've seen better days, sensei," Sayo replied as she slowly began to walk out of the room, removing her mask and gauntlets in the process and stowing them away in her now dirty coat. "Sensei? Remember that time with that Dante guy?"

She could practically hear the gears quickly working in Yuko's head over the phone. "…. Something like that again has come up?" she asked, her voice sounding quite serious, even more so than it usually does on missions.

Sayo sighed tiredly. "Seems like it. Just fought off a guy strong enough and quick enough to nearly kill me. He didn't seem to be on that Dante guy's level, thankfully."

"Where is he now?" Yuko asked, her voice full of concern for Sayo.

"Hopefully dead," Sayo answered. By sheer chance, as she made her way to the stairs, she cam across a window, leading out to the same alley where Hyde had crashed. Sparing a glance out there, the dust and debris had stopped flying about, giving her a look at the place.

A crater big enough to fit a hummer and deep enough to bury a dozen people could be seen. Due to how high up she was, Sayo could even see into the crater, all the way to the bottom.

Hyde wasn't there.

A shiver ran up her spine. No body and no signs of any blood or body pieces or even a simple blood trail could only mean one thing: he was still alive.

"On second thought, I think we need to tell everyone about this. Like as soon as possible," Sayo muttered into her phone.

She didn't even bother to hide the shock in her voice, so Yuko could most likely guess why she was in such a state of mind. "Alright then." Yuko paused. "The police are on their way. Use the fifth floor to jump to the next building before they get there."

Sayo nodded. "Alright." She then blinked once in surprise as she started to quickly make her way down the stairs. "…. Wait. How'd you know where…?"

"GPS tracker. In your mask." Yuko's voice started to regain the usually teasing tone she always had.

Sayo smiled sheepishly and tiredly as she still moved. "You never told me about that."

Yuko giggled a bit, though it sounded a little forced as memories of the encounter with Dante flooded her mind. "As if I'd let you run amok." Then she got serious once more. "Now, move. Quickly."

"Right." Sayo disconnected after that and picked up her pace, trying to ignore the pain from the few hits she took. For her to be this hurt with just a few blows… yet another shiver ran down her spine. If the man really was still alive and well, then they were all in serious trouble.

Outside the building where this took place, Percival stood across the street, in the midst of the many onlookers. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, taking a deep breath as he did so. Unlike the others there who were all mumbling nervously, he simply stood calmly and with an amused smile on his face.

"Looks like act one of this little play is finished. I wonder how act two will turn out?" he wondered in amusement. Ever since he turned that prostitute Mary into a demon during the Roger Weiss incident, he actually had a bit of trouble finding anything else to hold his interest for long, which really said something given how some people in this world were positively abnormal. That said, there was something about this whole thing that held quite a bit of interest him to. He could honestly that he hadn't expected Hyde to be here nor put on such a great show.

He looked forward, more specifically at a spot next to lamppost. There next to it stood Yuko Sagiri, the extremely curvaceous and buxom woman having just gotten off the phone with Sayo. Percival couldn't help but smile. The Black Label group she was a part of was remarkably interesting despite none of the members being truly out of the ordinary like Hyde or Holmes were. In the truly strangest of ways, they reminded him a bit of Mary in that even normal people could be most amusing to watch.

Percival took another drag of this cigarette, wondering just what would happen next. But regardless of how things play out, he was certain of one thing: he'd be entertained all the way to the end.

In a nearby alleyway, Jack stood amongst the shadows, watching as several police officers showed up, guns drawn as they very quickly made their way towards the rundown building. "Blast," he muttered.

By sheer luck, he had been in the area when he heard the massive crash and he felt that it was way too out of the ordinary to be the work of some mad bomber or terrorist. So with that thought having been in mind, he had made his way over here in the hopes that he'd come across Hyde, but it looks like the police beat him to it.

"Well, that is one dead end, to be certain," he thought as he watched on in silence from his hidden spot. Looking around, he could immediately surmise that there was way too many people around to be moving anywhere near the building. Granted, he could sneak past them all without too much trouble, but with the police now about to be crawling all over the place, a confrontation with them wouldn't really surprise him and that was something he wanted to avoid. The last thing he wanted or needed was to become known to anyone in this city.

Sighing, Jack pivoted and began to once again traverse the many back ways of the area as quickly as possible, moving so fast that if anyone even heard him move, they wouldn't even see so much as a blur.

"Maybe I should check out those students from before," he mused.

Just a little while earlier, he had actually passed through an area where the local high school, by the name of Mochizuki Private High School, was located. He had had to move slowly and very quietly through that area for school had let out for the day at that time and if the grandeur of the large campus and general upstanding stature of the area was anything to go by, he would have stood out like a very, very sore thumb if someone so much as even caught a glimpse of his coat. It didn't help that alleyways had been sparse around the high school either.

However, during his short time there, he did see three teens, delinquents from how they looked, conversing as they walked away from school. His hearing, along with his other senses, were also very sharp compared to normal humans and he had even overheard the three mention something along the lines of some new sample. Something illegal no doubt.

Thinking back on it now, it occurred to him that the Kabuto group does have a hand in the coming circulation of a new potent drug, something that was supposed to be pretty big news among the criminal element. Perhaps there was more than what meets the eye with what those three had spoken off. Which in turn meant that he would now have to go find and keep an eye on the teens. Who knows? Maybe following them would lead him to the Kabuto gang. And by extension, lead him to Hyde.

"And if I can't find them, then I can always resort to other means of info gathering," Jack thought, his signature unnerving smile now returning to his face. Oh yes, he was sure that there were plenty of criminals in the city that would be happy to help him. If given the proper motivation, of course.

Hours past and day gave way to night. At this time, Mikoto Kiba prepared to go and confront the Kabuto gang, or at least what remained of the gang.

Just barely a half hour ago, she and a new girl at school she had met, Chikage Hozuki, had been walking home when a drugged out of his student attempted to assault a girl. By sheer luck, they had been in the area and the two had managed to take him down. However, the man had gotten back up and run off. But he had dropped his phone and they looked at it to see a message from someone from the Kabuto group. It had been a threat, to bring the 'goods' to a warehouse if he wanted his friends back. A photo had been attached to the message as well, one of a girl with peach colored long hair and interesting violet eyes. Said girl was tied up and appeared to be wearing nothing save for her bra, her large bust having threaten to spill out of it. And it didn't take a genius to see that she had been crying earlier prior to the photo. The girl that Mikoto and Chikage had saved – Yuu Momokino – said she recognized the girl as Saki Ogata.

And after having quickly parted ways with Chikage and taking Yuu to the police station and later Mochizuki hospital, the white haired girl was now getting prepared to go to the warehouse mentioned in the text and put an end to the Kabuto gang. "The Kabuto gang…" she mentally growled as she finished putting on her usual Triage outfit and started to gather up her weapons, "for my brother's sake, I'll put an end to them," she thought darkly.

Moments later, Mikoto was ready and started to head for the garage where she kept her deceased brother's motorcycle. As she quickly ran there, not once did the thought of telling the rest of the Black Label group about this situation crossed her mind; in her eyes, this was something that she had to deal with by herself.

However, she forgot one thing: whenever one of them took off from one of the Mochizuki hospital's secret entrance without being cleared for it first, it does trigger a sort of a silent alarm to inform Masamune Mochizuki himself along with Fiona. Both of whom were in a meeting with the rest of the Black Label group.

They all blinked in surprise as Fiona suddenly went still. The blond woman then pulled out an Ipad and pressed on it. "That's odd," she commented.

Masamune narrowed his eyes, getting a bad feeling about this. "What is it?"

Fiona looked at him and then at everyone else. "Mikoto just took off on her motorcycle."

Everyone looked surprised at that. "Ooohhh, Miko-chin was here?" Oriha asked.

Arashi, as stoic and somewhat introverted as he is, simply narrowed his eyes, his way of showing his confusion. "Odd, I did call her to let her know about the meeting earlier, but just like at school, she ignored me," he commented aloud, though mainly to himself.

Said meeting was instigated by Sayo having some rather breaking news. Just moments ago, she had gotten done with telling them all of her encounter with the abnormal man she fought off. As would be expected of such an event, everyone else was put on edge by what she reported.

Masamune narrowed his eyes further. "Something strange is afoot here, for her to not come to this meeting and instead just take off," he muttered. He turned to Fiona. "Could there perhaps be anything recently reported to the police that would have set her off?" he asked.

Fiona took a few minutes to check on the Ipad. "Just about ten or fifteen minutes ago, a girl was brought to the police station. A mention of the Kabuto gang was made and that they may be located in one of the warehouses by the pier."

Arashi made a fist. "The Kabuto gang…" he thought, remembering what Mikoto had told him about her brother's death and the outbreak of crime following it.

Miki began to look concerned, immediately deducing what her now wayward ward was going to do. "She plans to try and take them on by herself!" she nearly yelled.

Sayo and Yuko looked just as worried now too, the latter gripping her sheathed sword tightly. If what Sayo told them was right, then the strange man she fought earlier was probably working for the Kabuto gang too. Mikoto wouldn't be able to handle him if he was there at the warehouse.

Everyone else in the room realized this too and the mood of the place became deathly serious. Even the usually talkative and somewhat lax Oriha looked quite serious.

"Alright then. We cannot let one of our own go off against dangerous adversaries." Masamune's voice sounded grave yet determined. "And they have been given a black label quite some time ago. It is time to remove them once and for all from this city."

Everyone there now looked as determined as Masamune sounded. It was time to suit up and help their friend. Time to move out.

Just outside the hospital, as Mikoto had left it just a few minutes before, Jack followed the motorcycle girl from the shadows, easily keeping pace with the bike from the shadows. "Lead me to them, little girl," he thought with a smirk.

Earlier he had returned to the area around the school, but no matter how hard he had looked, he couldn't find any trace of the delinquent students' whereabouts. He wasn't a detective like Holmes was, after all. That said, he had taken his time getting back there and made it there in time to see Mikoto and Chikage deal with that crazed guy, who had happened to be one of the students he had spotted earlier. Reading the text message from afar, he knew at that point where he had to go. However, upon sensing that the white haired girl would be wanting to go handle that particular situation, he had opted to hang back for now and just follow the female teen as he felt she would be a good distraction for the Kabuto gang.

He followed Mikoto in silence for a little over fifteen minutes, traversing nearby back ways and leaping from rooftops in order to keep her in sight. He had to admit that the girl was a damn good driver; she must have been doing about ninety miles and hour and cutting those corners in pretty good shape.

Eventually, they finally reached their destination: a large warehouse out by the water, a pier Jack would presume judging by the looks of it. He watched from the top of a nearby large stack of containers as Mikoto quickly snuck in through an opening.

Jack could also hear several voices from inside, undoubtedly members of the Kabuto gang along with whoever their leader was now. "Let's see how this goes, first," he muttered to himself. He felt sort of bad for using this girl in order to sneak in himself without trouble, especially if Hyde was really in there, but the less people he had to deal with aside from Hyde, the less troublesome and time-consuming it'd be in the end. At least that was his hope.

The infamous, centuries old killer blinked in surprise several minutes later as he began to see some men run out of the warehouse, all of them wielding some pretty high-grade sniper rifles. He watched as all of them began to move quickly, heading towards some nearby warehouse and finding ladders on the side to get to the top.

Jack sighed, realizing that staying where he was would get him spotted eventually and so in an eye blink, he shot forward from his standing position and made a sprint to the right of the warehouse where one of the mechanical sliding doors was still up. He entered through it and upon noticing a majority of the warehouse seemed to be filled with large stacks of crates and other such things, Jack took advantage of this and jumped to the top of a tall one in order to try and get a better view on things.

He clenched and unclenched both hands in preparation for whatever happened, silently thankful that he did have both hands for this confrontation; regenerating his right arm from the elbow down had taken a bit of time to do after the Roger Weiss incident. Thankfully, using the gear embedded in him to the fullest had greatly sped up the process. The fact that pushing himself past his limits in using the gear ends up giving him a permanent and decent increase to all of his abilities also helped too as he doubted Hyde would have become weaker over the century or so that he was off the grid. Granted, he was ambidextrous and favored his left anyway and he had plenty of confidence in his level of power prior to the Roger Weiss incident anyway, but that was beside the point.

He started to jump from stack to stack, careful not to make too much noise. As he moved about the very large warehouse in search of any sign of Hyde, Jack vaguely took note of seeing the girl he followed running about, her left leg looking pretty injured. The part of him that was a surprisingly nice and caring individual urged him to perhaps lend her a hand as he spotted several ordinary and terrified looking people with bomb vests tightly strapped on, looking around quite desperately. They must be trying to find the girl.

Trying to bury the urge to help deep inside himself, Jack kept on moving. However, not even a minute later, he was about to leap from one stack all the way to one a little over forty feet away when he suddenly heard some muffled sounds, like a voice followed briefly by some guys cursing and making a few threats.

Jack looked down at the area he would have jumped across to get to the other side and spotted the delinquent girl from earlier in the day. The poor teenage girl was stripped to the nude save for her bra and even that was in danger of falling off, due to a combination of her the girl's own very large breasts and the fact that the girl was getting shoved around by two guys. The reason why she sounded so muffled is because someone put some kind of ball gag in her mouth.

He stayed where he was as he heard the guys speak.

"Just why are we keeping this one and her friend alive anyway? The boss already got that one girl here to kill," one of the guys said as he shoved the girl – Saki Ogata – forward, ending her sprawling to the girl. He ignored the tears that were making their way from her eyes.

The other guy shrugged. "Eh, beats me. It's not like we're lacking hostages though." He looked over the fallen Saki, the girl looking justifiably terrified. He licked his lips. "Who knows? Maybe the boss wants to… 'sample' her after that other bitch is dead. Come to think of it, this girl and the boy didn't pay up for their trial samples, right?"

The first guy looked Saki over, his eyes looking hungrily at her breasts and her overall shivering, tied up form. He felt it was a damn shame that her body wasn't facing him; he couldn't see her – for the time being – her sacred place. This was something he wanted to change in the coming moment. "You know what? You might be right." He looked at his comrade. "Say… you think the boss won't mind if we try her out first, right?"

The second guy sneered, showing off some yellow teeth. A crazed and depraved look in his eyes appeared. "He won't mind if he doesn't find out…" he began, licking his lips.

The two began to very slowly walk towards Saki, wanting to draw this out.

Saki whimpered as much as she could through the ball gag that was in her mouth. To think that this day started off just like any other day, just lazing around at school, maybe cutting a class or two in the process. Then hanging around with her two friends afterwards. Then came one of them mentioning that one of their senpais got his hands on something new and they wanted to try it out. She knew something was up when they got offered so much of the new stuff for free.

God, she wished she hadn't stuck around when they were all led here. These guys had grabbed the three of them right there and then and made Hachizuka sniff a pretty good amount of the new drug they got and sent him off, the dude probably higher than a kite to call the cops.

And now she was isolated from everyone else within the warehouse, with these two guys to keep her company.

Saki's shivering picked up in intensity as the two guys inched closer. She… she didn't want this to happen. Hell, underneath her delinquent exterior, she was actually a bit of a girly girl (something that she would have given her buddies hell for if they ever knew about that side of her and tried to tell others; she had an image to uphold after all) and she sure as hell knew that even if nothing was done to her, she'd be crying her eyes out all week.

She tried to wiggle her way away from the two men, but not much success; her mind was too filled with terror to really move. Tears began to stream down her face.

She doesn't want to die. She doesn't want to die. She doesn't want to die… not like this…

Then suddenly, a tall and imposing shadowy figure appeared right behind her would-be violators.

Jack did his best to hold back his growl as he jumped down behind the two men. He's never really had much of a tolerance for little fuckers like them, but then he doubted anyone really did. And the tears of Saki did make that the urge to help from earlier resurface, stronger than before. So much for stealth now, he supposed.

He reached into the folds of his coat and pulled out his all but patented sword, the Hell Blade. The two men stopped moving as they had heard Jack lightly land, but they didn't have a chance to move before Jack took his slightly curved sword and rammed it right through the back of the man to his left.

The blade went out the man's chest and send blood splattering forth along with a bit of a gurgle from the shocked and in pain man. He didn't get much of a chance to scream though; blood filled his throat as Jack had aimed rather high and struck a large vein.

The other man and Saki stared in wide eyes, but before the former could react to the now quickly dying man, Jack pulled the blade out and whirled towards him, kicking the man hard enough to shatter his sternum on impact. The infamous killer then dashed forward before the man he kicked could go flying back from the force of his kick and grabbed him by the throat with his left hand after moving his sword to his right.

Jack lifted the man nearly a foot off the ground before choke-slamming him into the hard concrete, spider web cracks forming immediately and stretching on for nearly a dozen feet in all directions. He then let go of the man and gripped his sword with both hands before ramming it down straight into the man's forehead. The sheer force of his stab caused the blade to go through his head and embed itself deep into the ground.

Jack then pulled the blade out as quickly as it had gone in, blood spilling out from the hole in the now dead man. He turned his attention to the other man, who apparently was still alive, judging by the way he kept gagging and writhing about, even with the blood spilling out of the stab wound and his mouth.

Jack took a few steps towards the down man and promptly stepped on his throat with stone crushing force. The man stopped moving.

He now turned his attention to Saki, who was frozen to the spot after what she just saw. Wiping away the blood on his blade with his coat, he walked towards her. She flinched back violently as he did so.

Putting on the most concerned expression he could muster, Jack kneeled down, giving Saki a good look at his face. Despite the circumstances, Saki blushed upon seeing his looks, but Jack paid no mind to that.

Removing the gag and the rope around her hands, Jack grabbed Saki and helped her to her feet as gently as he could muster. "You alright?" he asked in Japanese, his English accent noticeable.

Saki was too busy taking in his facial features along with processing everything that had just happened to immediately respond. "Y-Y-Yeah," she stuttered out eventually.

Jack nodded. "Good to hear." A pause. "How many people are here?"

Saki shook her head. "I-I d-don't know," she muttered, her mind still filled with shock and lingering fear to try and remember how many people there were. "A-All I know is that some people h-have bombs strapped to them."

Jack nodded, having seen some of them earlier. Probably being forced to hunt down the white haired girl in exchange for not having the bombs going off, he'd imagine given how frightened yet determined they had looked. "What about a guy? Tall, real muscular, stupid smile on his face at all times?" he questioned, wanting to know if Hyde was here.

Saki tried to calm down, but it was so hard to think. She didn't who this guy before her was, but he seemed to be here to help.

She shivered, fully aware once again of her practically nude state. She began to start rubbing her own arms as she slowly became aware of the cold air in the warehouse. She froze though when she suddenly felt something being put over her.

Saki removed her hands from her arms and reached a little further past them to feel coat labels. She looked to see that Jack had removed his coat and put it on her. "Keep it until you get home and put on some fresh clothes," he said, "wouldn't want yourself to be leaving this place cold and horribly immodest."

Saki blushed at his words and also at his lean and ripplingly muscular physique. Then she finally managed to sort out some things she saw earlier and she spoke a second later. "T-There was a guy like that. Yeah, he was standing near that crazy white haired guy earlier…"

Jack nodded. "Alright then." He suddenly perked up as he started to hear a lot of commotion. Sounds like back up has come for the white haired girl.

Without a warning, he suddenly grabbed Saki and held her bridal-style, getting a yelp of surprise out of her. Securing his Hell Blade to the gun belt he had on, he proceeded to quickly run and jump onto a stack of crates.

He traversed the warehouse as fast as he could and just in time too as suddenly a huge hole was blown open in the ceiling, no doubt from some kind of explosion. He looked through the now present hole and thanks to the angle he was at, he saw some skinny guy with white hair – no doubt the leader of the Kabuto gang – getting pushed through the hole, but he managed to grab onto the ledge. Where he was apparently shoved from, Jack also spotted Mikoto on a motorcycle along with some other girl, the one he saw alongside the white haired girl from earlier.

But there was another person there on the roof of the warehouse as well. Jack grinned as he immediately recognized the person. "Hyde," he thought.

But then Saki's cries of shock at the speed he was moving at snapped him out of his thoughts and made Jack focus on this first. Hopping around from one stack to another, several seconds later, he spotted the hostages from earlier along with one of the other students from earlier today, one of Saki's friends. He also noticed that the bombs had been removed from the hostages and that there was some young girl in large brown coat and mask – Oriha, but not that he knew her name – standing off to the side as well. She must have removed the bombs.

Jack quickly jumped down to where they were at, surprising everyone and scaring them too. "Waaah!" Oriha cried out as she hadn't seen that coming.

Jack ignored them all as he set down Saki. "Here's your stop," he said as he did so.

Saki could only look at him dumbly. "T-Thanks."

Jack just nodded once more before turning around and all but disappearing from sight due to how fast he moved. His usual psychotic grin appeared on his face. "Time to end you, Hyde," he muttered to himself.

With Saki, Oriha, and the others, all could only stare at where Jack had just stood. "W-Who was that?" Saki's friend, a guy with a black beanie and dressed in the school uniform, asked shakily.

Saki just held the coat she now wore tightly and also buried her face in it in an attempt to keep herself modest and also so that no one would see the blush on her face. "D-Don't really know…"

Up on the roof, Mikoto felt like things have just become a nightmare. Kunio Oomichi seems to have finally died when she smashed the motorcycle into him, totaling it while knocking him off the roof, thus her brother having been avenged, but Chikage had just been shot in the face mere seconds ago by the man she had called master. Said master had just shown up not even a minute ago, all dressed up like some kind of stealth operative, all but broke Chikage's spirit by revealing he had just been using her and then just shot her in the face with a bow gun.

But what's more was that the guy who had apparently been working for Oomichi, a tall and massive man with a ponytail and the most psychotic smile she had ever seen, just stood there as she had rammed Oomichi with her motorcycle. She didn't know why, but Mikoto had the feeling that he was far from normal.

"Mikoto!" Said girl's eyes suddenly went wide as she heard a familiar voice. She whirled around in time to see Arashi, standing on the roof of a taller warehouse next to the one she was on.

She smiled. "Arashi!" she cried.

Rather than respond, the sole male among the Black Label group tossed a handgun to her from his spot as hard as he can in order to cover the gap between them.

Hyde and Chikage's master – whose real name no one knew due to him having pretended to be a police officer – looked in surprise at the sudden turn of events. However, the latter reacted quickly enough.

"Oh no, you don't," he muttered as he charged at Mikoto. He had no other weapon save for the bow gun and by the time he would reload it, Mikoto would have already received the handgun and shot him. So he ran at her as fast as he could and when he was close enough, he gripped the bow gun and swung it like a club.

Mikoto, though injured, was still well enough to move about and so she managed to roll back in time to avoid it and while grabbing the handgun in the process. She took aim almost immediately and fired, but the master saw the shot coming and ducked before Mikoto could truly aim at him and thus the shot missed. He charged forward again, tossing aside the bow gun and tackled her at the waist, knocking all of the air out of her.

Mikoto 'offed' from the force of it, but rolled with the tackle, dragging the master to the floor with her. Using her uninjured leg, she took advantage of her position and kicked him as hard as she could in the stomach before ramming a fist into his side. The master grunted from the hits and even looked ready to back off, but he held onto her and punched her right in the face.

It stunned her and the master used this opportunity to stand back. As he did so, he picked up Mikoto as well and kneed her in the gut before tossing her away. He then eyed the handgun on the floor, which Mikoto had dropped when she was tackled and he proceeded to pick it up and cock it at her.

"I know the rest of your little organization is here right now. That's why the snipers that idiot Oomichi had in the area aren't helping. I even know about that sniper woman of yours, but not even she will be able to lay down and take a shot at me before I kill you," he said, suppressing a cough. Mikoto's kick did some decent damage apparently despite the vest he wore.

Mikoto could hear Arashi shouting at her out of concern as she tried to get back up, but to no avail; when she just got tossed right now, she landed on her injured leg and the pain had been incredible. "Fucking shit…" she thought as she struggled to stand. She refused to die now, not after realizing how stupid she had been acting. She had thought she had to solve this entire thing alone, but now she realized just how wrong she had been. The rest of her team was there for her, like some kind of family. And she wanted to go back to them. So she couldn't die here.

She tried to stand once more. Didn't work though.

The master still had the gun pointed at her and even was about to pull the trigger, only to stop when he heard laughter. "Is there something amusing about this, Hyde?" he asked without taking his eyes off of Mikoto.

Mikoto narrowed her eyes. "Hyde?"

Hyde finally began to move from the spot he stood at. "Oh, I suppose so. I just never thought a lass like her could get under your skin so well," he commented, his smile never leaving his face.

Now that he was walking towards them, Mikoto got a bit of a better look at him and saw that his clothes seemed a bit torn and dirty, as though he fell or something and didn't bother cleaning up.

The master's right eyebrow twitched. "Glad to see that at least one of us is getting a kick out of this."

Hyde chuckled. "Of course. Now do hurry up, we have other things to do, after all," he said, crossing his arms across his muscular chest.

The master simply sneered and was getting ready to pull the trigger. As this occurred, Mikoto's mind seemed to work in slow motion as fear now began to make itself known in her heart as she watched the master's trigger finger slowly moved said trigger. Behind the man, the man known as Hyde seemed to somehow widen his already unnerving and psychotic smile.

However, as fast the smile made itself known on his face, it suddenly disappeared. Hyde suddenly looked surprised.

Then all of a sudden, he jumped to the left. As soon as he did so, Mikoto could a hail of bullets erupt from somewhere around the hole in the roof. And just as soon as she heard the bullets, she saw multiples holes appear in the master's chest, blood spattering all over the place and over her a bit.

The master's eyes widened in shock and pain before he staggered forward a few steps and then fell. Mikoto rolled out of the way to avoid the man's body falling on her. "What the…?" she began, only to look and see that someone else had appeared on the roof. "Who…?" she thought, not recognizing the man at all.

However, Hyde certainly did when he turned around. "Jack!" he yelled out, his smile returning and a mad gleam appeared in his eyes.

Jack had finally made himself known. "Well, shit," he muttered in English, though he was smiling. In his left hand, he held his handgun, the barrel smoking a bit. "I had hoped you wouldn't have noticed. It would have been nice if you just rolled over and died like a good boy."

Hyde laughed loudly, practically making the roof rumble. "Even after so many years, you are still alive! I honestly don't know if I should be surprised or not!" Then the smile on his face seemed to somehow change, or at least the emotion behind it. It felt like rage. "However, do not think that after all this time that I have not forgotten how you had evaded me during our first meeting. To think that I had been wounded a bit as well as having my pride hurt!"

Jack smiled gleefully as he put away his gun. He had a feeling that it wouldn't be of much help now that Hyde knew he was there. He instead reached for his sword and gripped it tightly in a reverse grip. "Well, no need to feel so upset now. Soon, your rage will come to an end."

Hyde laughed again as he tensed up, his body practically screaming out that he was ready to fight. "You really think you can end me, Jack the Devil? Because if so, then you are quite wrong; as I told you so long ago, I am immortal."

Jack sneered. He began to start walking towards Hyde. "Oh please. You're not immortal. Not even close. You are just another sniveling creature that has lived for far too long. You're just like some kind of disease or illness, eating away at the world. And it is time that the world be cured of you."

Mikoto watched this play out with an odd sense of both fascination and fear. Though they spoke English, she could understand what they were saying thanks to being good in English class at school. She found the way this strange new spoke just now to sound oddly like Arashi whenever he was about to eliminate a target. Only this guy sounded far more gleeful. And the killing intent radiating off of him and this Hyde person… it just made her want to run away.

"I suppose we shall see about that then, correct?" Hyde then said.

Jack's smile widened and he readied his blade. "Oh, we definitely will!" he yelled before charging at Hyde. He ran at full speed, disappearing from the sights of Mikoto and Arashi and the others who watched from afar.

But in Hyde's eyes, Jack, although fast, could still be kept up with. Hyde laughed in mad glee before letting loose a vicious backhand at full strength as Jack neared. Jack ducked under it and got ready to slice Hyde across the side, but Hyde raised his knee to hit him. The infamous killer brought up his free arm to block the hit before moving back a bit and punching Hyde in the face as hard as he could.

Hyde's face seemed to explode into a fountain of blood and flesh, but he didn't cry out in pain or anything. Instead, he kicked Jack hard in the stomach and sent him flying. Jack, though in pain from the hit, simply flipped around and landed perfectly on the roof.

But his opponent had anticipated this and had jumped into the air after he had kicked him. Jack sidestepped as Hyde tried to do an elbow drop. But once again, Hyde wasn't deterred and he quickly turned and grabbed Jack and then headbutted him hard.

Though he staggered, Jack responded by taking his blade and stabbing Hyde right through the stomach with terrifying ferocity. Hyde gasped and stumbled back as Jack pulled out the blade. Blood spurted out of the wound like water out of a broken faucet.

Jack followed up the attack with a fierce kick to the back of Hyde's left knee before maneuvering behind him and readying his sword to decapitate Hyde. But at this point, Hyde's stomach wound had healed and he reached behind his head with both arms and grabbed hold of Jack's right arm and pulled hard. The centuries old killer went flying right over Hyde and smashed hard into the roof, making a new and large hole in it.

Hyde let go and let Jack fall, but the latter grabbed hold of the ledge of the new hole and with his inhuman strength, pulled hard and he propelled himself at Hyde, slamming a shoulder into the larger man's chest. The self proclaimed immortal man once again cried out from the powerful and sudden hit and soon found himself being shoved back several meters as Jack was now essentially tackling him.

The big man quickly decided he had enough and hammersmashed Jack right into his exposed back, nearly knocking him down. Hyde then grabbed hold of his head and kneed him in the face. Jack yelled out in pain, blood flying out of his mouth from the angle the knee hit him at, but he proceeded to back up just a bit, taking a swipe at Hyde's right arm with his blade. The attack had been so fast that Hyde nearly found said arm almost sliced cleanly off before the pain finally registered.

Jack now sneered as Hyde held onto his right arm, keeping it in place to let it heal. But Jack wasn't going to give him that opportunity. He jumped forward at the man, his blade gripped tightly in one hand and he slashed away at Hyde's neck.

Hyde grunted as he tried to crane his head and neck back, the sword just barely missing its mark. He then leapt back to put some distance between himself and Jack, but Jack wouldn't let him, closing the distance faster than a sniper round could travel. The infamous killer was beginning to activate his gear. Not much, but just enough to give himself a bit of an edge.

He went in fast and low, wanting to take out Hyde's legs and naturally restrict his movement as a result, but at this point, Hyde's arm had managed to heal enough for it to no longer be in danger of falling off. With the ability to now fully focus on Jack once more, Hyde moved forward and jumped right over Jack and as soon as he landed, he very quickly reached out and grabbed Jack by the back of his neck, lifted him up to around the same level as his own head and began to spin him around at dizzying speeds.

But the infamous killer refused to be someone's little toy and so with much effort he broke free of Hyde's grasp and managed to get him in a headlock, with Hyde's head now under his left armpit. When this happened, Jack was still airborne though when this happened and thus the momentum Hyde had built up from the spinning was still very much in play. Jack knew this and used it to spin himself around once more before redirecting the momentum and himself downwards, effectively DDTing Hyde headfirst into the roof.

The insane strength he put into the attack combined with the crazy amount of momentum Hyde had built up was enough to destroy a large portion of the roof now and shake the entire warehouse as though a five point oh earthquake had struck it.

Mikoto was nearly tossed off the roof and she could only scream in equal parts shock and horror at what was going on. Thankfully, she somehow managed to not fall, but unfortunately, the same could not be said for the bodies of Chikage and her master. "Chikage!" Mikoto yelled as she watched both bodies fall off the warehouse and into the same spot where her motorcycle had fallen off, no doubt getting burned to a crisp upon making contact with the fire that had resulted from the crash.

"Just what the hell is going on?!" she thought at lightning speed, just not comprehending what was going on anymore. "This is sort of starting to feel like that time with that Dante guy, but there sure as hell was never any fight like this!" she thought frantically. She hoped that the hostages had made it out of the warehouse because she had a feeling that the two crazy men were going to bring it down. Thankfully – though she wouldn't know this until later- the hostages actually had left the warehouse, in part thanks to Oriha, who had led them all to safety after disabling all of the bomb vests they had.

Back with Jack and Hyde though, both men had fallen through what remained of the roof and into the warehouse below, crashing through stacks of crates. Both grunted in pain, but got back up in no time. Hyde chose to discard his dress shirt, the clothing article being little more than tatters at that point. Growling at Jack, the large man suddenly picked up an intact crate and flung it at him.

Jack saw it coming a mile away and sliced it in half with one swift move of his sword. But as soon as he did, Hyde rushed him, ramming into him with the force of a runaway freight train. Roaring, he wrapped his arms around Jack and kept on running forward, taking Jack along for the ride. He smashed through several stacks of crates along with a wall or two in rapid succession before Jack elbowed him in the back of the head before moving his Hell Blade into his right hand and slashing at Hyde's side.

Hyde stumbled, but didn't let go, forcing Jack to knee him several times in the face in short order before his foe finally relinquished his hold. As soon as he did, Jack leg swept him and the instant Hyde was back-first on the ground, Jack raised his blade high and brought it down in a stabbing motion.

Unfortunately, his foe rolled out of the way before it could go through his face. Hyde then grabbed Jack by the leg, picked him up and slammed him into the ground before flinging him through yet another wall.

The infamous killer hit the ground hard, but rolled about to end up in a crouching position. Sighing in slight annoyance now, he activated the gear just a bit, honestly having not expected Hyde to be this tough.

As soon as he did, Jack launched himself at Hyde and once within several feet of him, jumped high into the air. Hyde moved forward to meet him and launched a powerful punch at him before he could any closer, but Jack avoided the punch while still airborne and elbowed him straight in the nose, utterly destroying it again. Blood flowed out of the wound and got into Hyde's eyes, blinding him for a few seconds.

And for people as fast as Jack, a few seconds might as well be a few minutes. Gripping his sword with both hands, Jack unleashed a barrage of slashes, the first several being nonfatal ones, but still meant to incapacitate while the last few blows were meant to be fatal. As such, Hyde quickly found himself in much pain as tendons were sliced through, arteries were cut open, and muscle was all but sawed off. Within those few seconds, Hyde went from being relatively fine to being in a world of hurt.

And yet, he was still alive.

Jack growled, now growing tired of this sortie and he readied his sword for one last strike, one meant to off Hyde's head and put an end to him for good. But as he launched what would be the final attack, Hyde's muscles healed themselves just enough to allow him to move and with a mighty roar of rage, he smacked aside Jack.

The sudden blow sent Jack flying through yet another wall and this time around, the other side of the wall turned out to be the outside of it. His Hell Blade was knocked from his hands and went skidding across the ground several meters.

Hyde dashed at him and Jack ended up pulling out his handgun upon immediately realizing that he wouldn't be able to retrieve his sword in time. But Hyde saw him do so and somehow managed to put on a sudden burst of speed, great enough to reach Jack and smack aside his firearm and send it skidding to where his sword was at.

Hyde threw a haymaker, but Jack caught it, spun around with Hyde in tow and flung him back through the hole. Hyde soared across the room and through a stack of crates, sending them all tumbling down, with several landing on Hyde with great force.

Rather than risk yet another smacking aside by going after his weapons, Jack instead went after his foe. Just because he no longer had his weapons didn't mean that he was helpless after all.

As soon as Hyde threw aside the pieces of the crates on him, Jack introduced his left fist to his stomach, making him double over. The killer than proceeded to grab Hyde and hoist him up in a powerbombing position and did so, cratering the ground hard in the process.

But before he could do more, Hyde attacked from his new position on the floor by kicking Jack high into the air. Jack lost his breath sometime in between getting kicked and crashing into the ceiling above. He hit it hard enough to break chunks of it off and fall with him.

He didn't fall far before Hyde quickly smashed through a wall, found a support beam for the warehouse and pulled the large beam out of its spot. "Die, damn it!" Hyde yelled as he spun on the spot and struck Jack with the now weaponized support beam in a manner similar to a batter in a baseball game, his muscles rippling due to how much of a strain this was on him.

Jack slammed into a support beam on the other side of the warehouse. Crying out in pain as he crashed into the beam before falling to the floor, he took a second or two to get up. During that time, he could hear Hyde running straight at him, smashing through whatever was in his way like an angry rhinoceros.

Jack got to his feet in time to now see Hyde charging at him, the man practically frothing at the mouth. Evidently, he was as sick of Jack as Jack was sick of him. "JAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKK!" he roared.

Jack just smiled, though his anger at how long this was dragging out was beginning to really show through. He may admire indulging in epic fights from time to time, but battling Hyde at the moment was apparently turning out to be the exception.

Without really looking, Jack kicked at the bottom of the support beam behind him a few times to destroy it and then he slammed himself against it to dislodge it from the top. The support beam then began to fall forward, in Hyde's direction, but the large and charging man was still a ways off from getting hit by it.

But Jack knew that. He was just getting himself a weapon is all. Turning his back towards the falling support beam, he tensed up as it slammed right into him, but with a grunt and some starting-to-get-kinda-painful strain on his body, Jack wrapped his arms around the beam and bent low so that the top of it was aimed directly at Hyde.

Hyde, surprised by what Jack was doing, actually slowed his charge a bit and that was when Jack struck. With a battle cry that would have had even the toughest of Spartans and Vikings running for momma, Jack ran forward and within a second, the top of the beam smashed into Hyde with the force of a wrecking ball.

Hyde couldn't even cry out from the pain before slamming through a few walls as Jack kept on running. It wasn't until Hyde was smashed through yet one of the few remaining walls and then a surprisingly still standing stack of crates that Jack finally stopped running and instead swung the beam to his right, flinging Hyde across the vast storage room and sometimes skipping along the ground like a rock would skip along water, though he was leaving large spider web cracks instead of water ripples.

Discarding the beam, Jack ran after Hyde. As he did so, he couldn't help but idly wonder in the back of his mind what became of the girl on the roof, but then figured that maybe those other people he saw on the other rooftops got her and made a run for it. Though he wouldn't know it, the Black Label group did indeed quickly grab Mikoto and take off following his and Hyde's fall into the warehouse. He also couldn't know that by this point, the police were on their way here.

He reached Hyde in time to see the man slowly rise from the ground, moaning now in pain. The fight was finally taking its toll on him. Hyde was holding the side of his head in pain when Jack grabbed hold of him, lightly jumped and rammed a knee into Hyde's temple.

The man staggered to his knee and Jack took the liberty of grabbing hold of his ponytail with his right hand and proceeded to pummel his face in with his left fist. He struck the first time, Hyde's nose shattered for what to be the third or fourth time thus far. The second punch came, Hyde's cheekbones broke apart. The third punch, the area around his right eye got swollen. With every punch, Hyde started to get more and more wounded and now they didn't seem to be healing as quickly as before.

Jack smiled. "Finally… time to say goodbye to the world," he thought.

But when he threw another punch, Hyde managed to catch. Squeezing Jack's fist tightly, Hyde grunted before ramming his own fist deep into Jack's ribcage, taking much pleasure as he heard a few ribs crack into a dozen pieces. He then unleashed another punch that sent Jack flying more than twenty yards.

Jack landed hard, but forced himself up as fast as he could, gasping from the pain he now felt from his ribs. Or at least what was left of them. However, he was surprised to see that Hyde hadn't given chase. Instead, the man simply stood where he was, wheezing badly from exhaustion.

"What? All out of steam?" Jack taunted, though he was doing much better at the moment. Just activating the gear, however impartially, could be quite draining.

Hyde chuckled tiredly. "The same could be very much be said about you, Jack the Devil," he commented.

"You should be far more concerned for yourself, you moron," Jack shot back.

Hyde merely sneered. "Regardless of what we say to one another though, I highly doubt either of us will back down."

Jack grinned. "Well, this is a bit amusing. To think, finally something we agree on."

Hyde sneered again. "Then… come." Then he ran straight at Jack.

Jack ran straight at him. The two met in the center of the room they were in, colliding like out of control trucks. The two smiled like madmen as they just began to wail on each other, punching without any form of restraint nor bothering to block or dodge each other's attacks. It was a fistfight now, nothing more and nothing less. Both were too tired now to do anything aside from this.

They punched each other with everything they had left, their blows fast and heavy and unrelenting. And no matter how hard they were, neither stopped smiling. One could perhaps say that they have finally come to some sort of strange agreement, though only they would ever know what said agreement really entailed.

The ground beneath them cracked and cratered due to how viciously they were going at it. They didn't notice and even if they did, they wouldn't have cared.

They certainly would have cared about their surroundings though if they had paid more attention to what was inside some of the crates: gasoline barrels. Some of which had been ruptured and spilled out during their battle. And some of the gasoline was making its way towards the fire that had resulted from Mikoto's motorcycle. It had been for quite some time now.

And it was now that the gasoline finally reached the flames.

Neither Jack nor Hyde saw it coming. One second, they were duking it out until one of them dropped and the next, a massive explosion went off as the gasoline was ignited by the fire and all of the ruptured barrels blew.

In what could only be described as an instant, the warehouse was blown entirely to smithereens. Jack and Hyde were blown away from one another by the sheer power of the explosion.

Both got a little roasted from the flames, but both had taken far worse and would recover from the burns in no time at all once they got rest. Jack had gone flying out of one side of the warehouse when the explosion had gone off while Hyde got launched out the other side.

"Urggh, fuck…" Jack muttered upon landing. He coughed and sputtered a bit as he slowly stood a minute later. As he did so, he spotted his sword and gun not far from where he was. Looks like he lucked out and got blown in the same direction they were in.

Slowly walking over and picking the weapons up, he put them away on his gun belt and turned towards the destroyed warehouse. All he could see were flames and rubble. "Bloody hell…" he thought. He certainly hadn't thought this would have happened.

He stood there, looking quiet as he continued to stare. He knew that Hyde survived, having seen him get blown in the opposite direction. He was too stubborn a bastard to go down with an explosion. And by now he bet that he was on the other side of the warehouse right now, looking at the rubble as well before taking off.

With that in mind, Jack felt tempted to immediately pursue him, but he was feeling more than just a little tired right now. He needed to rest and maybe get something to eat. It had been several days since he last bothered to eat and it was taking its toll on him.

But Hyde would undoubtedly leave the country now, what with the Kabuto gang utterly gone now. Where he would go next was something that would most likely take the Illuminati some time to figure out. And until then, all Jack could do was wait.

With this in mind, Jack turned around and quickly left just as he heard the police sirens.

Up on a road far away, yet up high enough for people there to clearly see the pier, Inunaki watched it all, with a smile on his face. With a pair of binoculars, he spotted Hyde quickly fleeing the scene as the police began to arrive. He couldn't help but chuckle at seeing how beat up the man looked.

"They certainly put on quite a show. I bet sensei and his little Black Label group are going to be keeping tabs on them now too," he thought aloud. "On the other hand, them getting involved in these sorts of things may make my job a bit harder…"

Inunaki now looked a little troubled. But then the look faded and was once again replaced by a smile, though it was a small one. "Whelp, that being said… looks like it's now my cue…"

Elsewhere, more specifically, on top of a building just outside the pier area, Percival stood there with a large smile on his face. "Wow… that… now that had been most entertaining!" he exclaimed aloud. The confrontation between Jack and Hyde was certainly one for the ages. Hell, maybe if the mood really hit him, he might even draw a scene depicting the fight later. Of course, he'd need to have a good smoke and maybe a woman or two around if or when he started to draw it out…

He rubbed his chin in thought. "Not to mention too… that little Black Label group…" He could honestly say he hadn't expected them to be this caught up in the situation, even though it was unintentional on their part. It wouldn't surprise him now if this event would cause them to start actively looking for individuals like Jack and Hyde and Dante from some time before. And if that happened, he was most curious to see just how that would turn out.

"Oh yeah, it looks like I chose a good spot to hang around in…" he muttered as he looked up to the bright full moon. Then a second later, he was gone.

The next day rolled around soon enough. And during the day, a number of things happened in short order. The explosion at the pier was reported on almost every news channel, Mikoto had been admitted to the hospital to be treated for her injuries last night, and yet another meeting was called for the Black Label organization. They had much to discuss and in so little time as well. They had two new people to be keeping an eye out for, Inunaki was still to be monitored whenever he appeared again, and they must stay vigilant in the case of an attack against them. The now deceased master of Chikage Hozuki had opened their eyes to the chilling news that there may be an organization out there meant to challenge them and there was much to be done. They all would have a long road ahead of them.

Elsewhere in the city, Saki Ogata, now dressed in fresh clothes upon returning home following giving a statement to the police about last night, was blushing madly upon seeing that the coat her savior had lent to her was now gone from her room. Which could only mean that he had come into her room sometime between when she put the coat down on her bed to go shower and change and when she came back to retrieve his property. He had even left her a note that thanked her for keeping it out for him to get back. She would later start having dreams about him perhaps returning.

Elsewhere, Hyde was on a ship, leaving Japan, dressed in new clothes and currently sleeping while hiding away amongst the large cargo containers. Though he slept remarkably peacefully, a psychotic smile could still be visible on his face.

And elsewhere again, Jack hid in a rundown building, getting a bit of rest himself as he sat on the floor and leaned against the wall. However, his sword could be seen, held in his hand and ready for action. A small yet unnerving smile could be seen on his face. Though he was exhausted, he had found himself actually enjoying the battle yesterday even if it was a bit on the frustrating side. In fact, now that he really had time to reflect on the battle, he found himself wanting to head back out and try to track down Hyde once more.

But alas, he couldn't, not right now in his current state.

But he was a long lived person and he'd live for many years to come. He was patient and he had plenty of time. Sooner or later, day would give way to night like always.

And like always, he would hunt, removing 'diseases' like Hyde from the face of the earth. The ultimate Triage so to speak.

Jack's smile gave way to a maniacal grin. He could hardly wait for night to fall.

* * *

Okay, just wow. 29 PAGES! And over 15,000 words long! I cannot recall ever writing so much for any one-shot or any chapter for… well, any of my stories or side project! I have to say this turned out to be considerably longer than expected.

Well, moving on now, for those of you (if any) that do read Hell Blade, I am certain you may be kind of taken aback by how Jack acted in regards to Saki or in other parts of the fic. Same thing for Hyde. That said, in this fic, it has been roughly a century and a few decades since the time of the Hell Blade manhwa so naturally there would a few changes in their personality over time. Now that said, I did try to keep them in character as much as possible. Percival though… well, honestly, I don't know about that guy. It felt kind of hard to really transition him from what I read in Hell Blade to my own writing. At any rate, he always struck me as the sort of uber powerful bystander, the being that just does whatever he wants for the hell of it and mainly just gets his kicks with watching certain things. So I hope I did well in that respect.

And on one final note, the action. Yeah, I will admit that perhaps to some, it seemed to be a bit above and beyond what the characters of Hell Blade have shown themselves capable of, but then the final volume has yet to come out and from the looks of it near the end of volume 4, it looks as though Jack has yet to fully activate the gear embedded within him. As for Hyde, well given that he was able to take on Mary (the new demon thing to appear in volume 4) with just pure physical strength, I thought it was well within range of what he would be capable of. But nonetheless, I gave the fight scenes as good as I got, so I hope you all got some enjoyment out of it.

So with all that said, hope you enjoyed it and be sure to review!


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